Koh Lanta

We arrived here on the 21st to find a true paradise. The weather on this side of the coast is beautiful, sunny and warm. The island itself is much more laid back than Koh Phangan, but the night life is definitely not as exciting. We decided to stay at The Time For Lime Bungalows (our most expensive accommodation yet) but it’s very worth it! The bungalows are very nice and simple and the place itself is a cooking school run by an ex-pat, the food here is amazing! The lady who owns it also runs an animal sanctuary for dogs and cats not far from the school so there’s no shortage of animals around to pet! The second night we were here my friend from school Fidel came and met us, it was very cool seeing someone from back home! He’s also traveling around the South Pacific for 7 months before he heads off to school. We also met up with Katisse and Jen’s friends Lindsay and Adrian who are staying on Lanta as well! The 6 of us have been having an awesome time roaming the island on Vespa’s and just hanging out. We did go out on Thursday night (party night on Lanta) and got quite drunk (my first legal drink! haha) we danced and went swimming in the ocean in our clothes! It was a lot of fun! When we came back to our bungalows the dogs staying here had a good time greeting us (they got lots of cuddles that night!) and one dog even followed me back to the bungalow, he stayed with us the whole night. Maybe he knew we needed someone to watch out for us 🙂 For the past couple days following that night we’ve just been taking it easy, relaxing on the beach and hanging out in hammocks, the cats here are also really friendly and will sit in your lap in the hammocks. Yesterday we (Katisse, Jen and I) booked our boat/bus to Cambodia! We leave on the 29th, I’m very excited to start the next chapter of our trip, Thailand has been really incredible and I’m excited to keep exploring the world! We also went and walked some dogs at the Sanctuary down the road, they had fun (I think!) When we came back we were pretty tired from the heat, but the owner of the place (Junie) suggested we should help one of the employees here (Kit) walk the 13 dogs that live here. It is a pretty tough job for one guy! So we each took two dogs, Kit took the rest, and walked them to the nearby beach where they could run off leash, this was quite a task! When we brought them back we decided to run with them, they all were so excited! I can’t imagine how funny it must have looked to the tourists eating dinner along the beach! Not sure what we’ll do today, but I think it may just have to be another beach day, it’s hard to do anything when the beach is so close! Tomorrow Fidel will leave us to travel to Koh Phi Phi and beyond, it was awesome getting to spend time with him, and in two days we will begin our adventure in Cambodia! 🙂 Next post will be from there! 

Love, Steph

Bangkok Pt.II & The Wonder Drug (Koh Phangan)

Hello!

We made it back to Bangkok after another wonderful night bus (meaning, I barfed again) and went back to The Khao San Palace to recover before we set off for the islands. I spent two days in the hotel room sick as a dog (I barely ventured out for food) before we set off for Koh Phangan via another night bus and a ferry. The night bus went a little different this time, I decided to finally cave and take two gravol (hence, the “Wonder Drug”) I slept the entire bus ride! Unfortunately I think may have taken a few too many gravol in the night and could not keep my eyes open on the ferry the next morning. When we finally made it to Koh Phangan it was raining! We got suckered into taking a taxi that dropped us off pretty much in the middle of the town and told us to “walk left” to find our hostel. At this point we were all so exhausted and soaked it was a little frustrating trying to find the place! When did end up finding our hostel, we stayed in a 26 bed dormroom (it was like a prison) and managed to dry off a bit we decided to check out the beach. We stayed right by the famous Full Moon Party beach which fits 30,000 people every month for the party, the beach was less than a kilometer long! It was pretty nice, quite dirty unfortunately there were bottles and broken glass everywhere. We spent three days on Koh Phangan just lounging on the beach and eating, dare I say it, Mediterranean food, it was really good though! My birthday was spent walking along the beach in the rain and playing with a golden retriever stray that was very friendly, and of course my roomies bought me some cake 🙂 Koh Phangan should have a been a one day stop for the Full Moon Party for sure, but it was a good experience anyway. I did find it a little hard though seeing all the natural beauty around and yet the place felt so dirty from all the partying, I think it’s going be hard to maintain the Party every month as the beach starts to get worse and worse. On the 21st we headed to Koh Lanta for some much needed relaxation!

Love, Steph

 

 

Pai and Chiang Mai Pt.II

Hello!

So, I guess I’ll start from where I left off, the cooking class. It was awesome! So many Thai dishes are quick and easy to make! We cooked with three other German couples, all nice people and of course our cooking instructors who enjoyed teasing us about our inability to eat more than “mild” spicy food! The next day Katisse and I headed to the Elephant Nature Park for the whole day, it was incredible! It was founded by a local Thai woman named “Lek” as a place for old, abused and disabled elephants. It’s referred to as “Elephant Heaven” and it really is. We fed the elephants, bathed them in the river and pet them for hours! They were so gentle and sweet and so forgiving considering that so many were abused by humans. All of the elephants were special but I found I really loved “Jarunai” a 70 year old female who was blind in both eyes. She lost her eyesight after her owner shot at her eyes with slingshots when she refused to work anymore. Although she’s had a very difficult life (elephants are broken around age 3 through a gruelling 3 day, 3 night ordeal in which they are caged up and not fed or given any water, all the while being constantly jabbed with nails in order to breed “submissiveness” within them) she’s still happy and sweet. To feed her we had to take her trunk and place the fruit in it for her. Katisse and I decided we’re going to go back and volunteer there in a couple of years. The next day we took a mini bus to Pai and endured 762 turns and twists on the road over 3 hours to make it to Pai! Pai was beautiful, very trendy and cute. The town itself was very small so we rented bikes and explored it in one afternoon. The place we stayed at in Pai was very cute, Mr. Jan’s Guesthouse, it consisted of very kitschy cottages and cartoon themed blankets and curtains! We came back to Chiang Mai on the 13th to spend an extra day before Bangkok and the islands. Chiang Mai is lovely and our hostel is awesome! We also couldn’t help but come back to spend more time with Stine our Danish friend and roomate, she’s magnetic! We decided to go out and ended up meeting so many awesome people at our hostel while pre-drinking, we met some awesome girls from the Faroe islands, a very nice architect from New Zealand and a very cute English boy! We went out to The Rooftop Bar, it was reggae themed and very fun, although the floor was a little to springy for my taste, especially on the 3rd floor! Anyways, Katisse and I got pretty drunk off the cheap and awful liquor and ended up heading home around 2am. Just got up this morning, no hangover! and got ready for our bus today back to Bangkok, hopefully it’s better than the train! Next post will hopefully be on the islands!

Love, Steph

Chiang Mai

Hello from Chiang Mai! We just got here about 2 days ago after a grueling 12 hour journey on the night train. I ended up getting food poisoning like 2 hours into the trip and didn’t sleep a wink that night.Being sick ended up making me home sick which made the journey even harder. We ended up arriving in Chiang Mai around 7am without a place to stay, buuutt thankfully the hostel I had messaged the night before replied saying they had a room for us. Apparently we were coming to CHiang Mai right on the tail end of the flower festival and it was quite busy. The hostel is really nice, it’s called A Little Bird Hostel, dorm rooms and a common area (shared bathrooms as well). We’ve met some nice hostel stayers so far, a very nice french girl we met on the train and two of her friends who decided to stay here as well. We also just got a roomie yesterday from Denmark, she’s been travelling for 3 years and she’s only 22, she’s awesome. full of stories. The first day we arrived I didn’t do anything but slept, I felt awful still. Yesterday Katisse and I checked out some Wats and managed to find the main one in the center of town, beautiful! After that we met back up with Jen and attended an afternoon yoga class, amazing, so relaxing and refreshing. Last night we went to the Night Bazaar and I got some cute stuff for so cheap! Today we’re going to go to a night time Thai cooking class and then back to the Bazaar. I would elaborate more but they’re shared computers and well…people are staring over my shoulder! Bye everyone! Hope all is well!

Love, Steph

Haro!

Sooo, like every other trendy traveller I’m going to start a travel blog! I guess I’ll start with where I am and how I got there. After working fulltime at A & W for 8 months I finally saved enough money to go travelling for about 7 months with two of my good friends, Katisse and Jen. We met up in Vancouver on January 31st after I took the ferry over from Victoria, one of the hardest ferry rides/goodbyes I’ve ever had to endure (leaving the fam and the boyfriend). We stayed overnight at a friend of Katisse’s family (super sweet, awesome couple) and set out for the airport the next morning. After a 12 hour, 40 minute flight plus another 2 and a half hour flight we made it to Bangkok! It was such a rush stepping off our plane into the hot, humid air! We caught our first cab and headed for our place on Khao San Rd (fondly referred to as the “Backpacker Ghetto” of Thailand) it was a bit of a culture shock. People were everywhere and it was loud and bright, even at 1:30am! We settled into our hotel, which is cheap and nice, and slept for a good 9 hours. When we got up we spent the day adjusting to the climate and wandering around beautiful Bangkok, Beautiful in a very different way than Canada (it’s a little smelly). I had my first Thai breakfast of fried rice and vegatables, the Thai’s laugh at us when when we order this they must be thinking “poor bland-palate suffering foreignors” oh well! It was good! The next day we got up and decided to check out the famous Grand Palace, it was amazing! Unfortunately we headed out a little too late in the day and had to be wearing long pants and long shirts, baaaadd combination. I loved the palace but found it slightly hard to enjoy because of the heat. The temple within the palace was incredible. We were brave enough, unlike the other tourists, to attempt our first Wai infront of the Buddha (praying) we followed the Thai’s lead and I found it an incredibly spiritual experience. I’m still getting chills just writting about it (cheesy? I know). After the palace I hailed our first cab, the driver was very nice!, and we headed to the train station (train is rot fai in Thai, thanks driver!) to buy our tickets for our next stop Chaing Mai. It started to rain (when it rains in Thailand, it pours) just as we got our cab so were lucky as Katisse still has no rain jacket! When we returned we spent the rest of the day recovering from the heat and hanging out. That night me and Jen walked around for a while, as Katisse didn’t feel well, and checked out some clubs we’re going to go to tonight. Today (our 3rd day in Thailand) we got up and decided to have a lazy day (as the museum we wanted to go to is closed Sundays!) we got some breakfast, I experimented with some noodle soup (so good!) and then headed back to our hotel to attempt some sun-bathing on the roof/pool area. That’s about it so far, tomorrow is our last night in Bangkok before we head out for Northern Thailand and hopefully some trekking in the jungle! I’ll try to keep you guys posted, but unfortuantely the cheaper the hostel the less likely it is to have wifi, and well…we’re travelling pretty cheap! 🙂 Love you all, and hope all is well back home!

-Steph

P.S. mom, Skylar looked lovely yesterday 🙂